Opening Bell: 02.01.10

Bank Of America's New Voice In Washington (WSJ) Brian Moynihan spent five of his first 13 working days as CEO in Washington. People close to the bank say he wants to revamp the company's recalcitrant reputation, have a voice in new legislation and avoid a rerun of last year's sparring with U.S. officials, which led to regulatory handcuffs, a forced overhaul of the bank's board and Mr. Lewis's departure. Moynihan also attended the World Economic Conference in Davos, which Lewis never did.Paulson Says He Was Prepared to Guarantee Lehman (Bloomberg) "The British screwed us," Paulson, a former chairman of Goldman Sachs, said he told the U.S. bankers the next day. UBS Shares Hit by Swiss Minister 'Fail' Comments (Reuters) "We know ... the Swiss economy and the job market would suffer on a major scale should UBS fail as a result of its licence being revoked in the United States," Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf was quoted as saying in an interview with Swiss newspaper Le Matin Dimanche, published on Sunday.Morgan Stanley says to hire several hundred traders (CNBC) Who wants a job? Everything That Could Go Bad, Did Not (FT) Hank Paulson feared there would be a run on the dollar during the early phase of the financial crisis when global concerns were focused on the US, the former Treasury secretary has told the Financial Times. Bankers use derivatives trades to cash in bonus stock (FN) Nice problem solving, team.CIA ops moonlight in corporate world (Politico) The tactics that BIA officials such as these teach hedge fund clients are based in a program it calls "Tactical Behavior Assessment." In one presentation in 2006, BIA personnel promised to teach managers at SAC some of the CIA's own foolproof techniques. The presenters included two women with backgrounds in intelligence. One spent 20 years with the CIA, specializing in polygraph, interviewing, and deception detection. The other had more than 25 years of interrogation experience, and reminded someone of Clarice Starling.Roubini Sees `Very Dismal' U.S. Growth (Bloomberg) "The headline number will look large and big, but actually when you dissect it, it's very dismal and poor," Roubini said in a Jan. 30 BloombergTV interview following a U.S. Commerce Department report that showed economic expansion of 5.7 percent in the fourth quarter. "I think we are in trouble."